Monday, 6 July 2015

islands and caterpillars

The last few weeks of term were busy. I started doing some relief teaching, which meant some family routine adjustments on the mornings when I was called at 8:00am. I LOVE being back in the classroom!

I thought I might share a few things that we created during this past school term. A friend of mine makes amazing bento box lunches for her kids. I was inspired and tried my hand at a very hungry caterpillar bento. I am not posting a photo of my friend's caterpillar, as you will not be at all impressed with mine if you saw the two together!!

My kids absolutely loved them, so I'll call it a success. I am grateful for friends that are so inspiring! It was also great to finally use the silicone cupcake liners that have been in my cupboard for years.

Zoe was required to design and make a 3D island. I am insisting on showing you photos of the island as the making of it affected our entire family. For weeks. Almost every room in our house (bar the toilet) had at least one pile of recycled 'bits' that Zoe used on her island.

Papier mache base.

Light house.

Wind turbines.

Water fall with hydro electric station.

Reef (made out of our old trampoline mat straps!).

Airport terminal, runway, train station and railway.

Sand (sugar!).

One of many bridges. This one is for the railway.

Shopping precinct, complete with helipad, bridge and travelator for pedestrians!

Quay and tunnel to the main land.

And like her mother always does, Zoe sustained a hot glue gun injury. I'm personally thinking of it as a tribute to me.

Hot glue gun blister!

And what is a school term without some of our favourite type of water colour painting? Food dyes how I love thee!

Starting off with a pencil drawing.

Inspired by Dr Seuss.

Zoe and Eli made these turtle containers. Two empty water bottles and some foam craft sheets, plus a little glue and you're done!

Oh, and a little bead for the 'handle' on the flap opening. Zoe recommends using something a little less obvious than permanent marker when you are drawing out your turtle shape!

And another projects completed by Zoe (the whole term was a series of projects). This is another that I was glad to see finished! I think that Zoe secretly loves papier mache...

This cute echidna did eventually get eyes.

I must confess to helping Zoe with this project. The skewers were too long, so my job was to snap a third of the length off. All three hundred and fifty of them.

Snapped!

We are looking forward to some exciting craft activities during our two
week school break (interspersed with orthodontic appointments and
cleaning out bedrooms. But we don't say those things out loud!).

7 comments:

I remember well the days of old when school projects took over the whole house. Zoe's 3D island is fantastic. WOW!! My goodness there is a lot of inspiring creativity that goes on in your home....they are all incredible. Love, love, love the hungry caterpillar school lunch box. Every child would gobble all those goodies up every day if their school boxes looked that inviting. Of course, school holidays just means more creating.............

As a grandma now, I'm thankful to have moved beyond the school project stage :) It caused a great deal of stress at the time. But I do remember the smiles when they felt they had done a great job. Bless you dear mamma! You seem to be taking it in stride :) Your projects all looks amazing. I am intrigued by the caterpillar sandwich.... :) Janita

Wow!! All those projects are so awesome. I love all the dertails on the island, the wind turbines are particular cute! And that echidna is awesome. Great water colour paintings too!! I don't think you'll have time for appointments and bedroom tidying with all that creative productivity going on.